Family spotlight...

Hi, dear "Burns Blog" Family!   :) 

          

I'm Carolyn Burns, daughter to Tom & Ruth Holland-Burns, & older sister to Sarah; and I grew up in "our little red house on Campbell Street" in Woodbridge, NJ. We took that same drive to "Grandma's house" up Route 1&9 and Parkway (ie: not "over the river & thru the woods") to her Newark apartment that Pete & Richard did, because we were next door neighbors.

I loved "both our Harriets" there, kind quiet devoted grandmother and "Aunt Joy Joy" (named for the "miracle dish detergent", AND the joy she brought into our lives!  :O) .  I loved meals in the kitchen at the big oak table, next to the ever-attractive little "dumb waiter" door, & I always loved the little hot cinnamon candy hearts. I, too, remember the "Lincoln logs", but not with fondness... because "Lincoln had never given Grandma enough"! When I was very little and "too sad to go" home from Grandma, I was always comforted and tempted to put on my coat and "smile thru my tears", for we were going to "see all the taxis 'sleeping' and the big flying Budweiser eagle on our drive home (I think my Dad drove a little slower there..)

Well...after lots of "smiles...tears...coats and trips"...I grew up & graduated from Woodbridge Senior High, then Columbia Univ, NY, School of Nursing  (yep! another nurse in the family!...following in the steps ofAunts Florrie, Harriet, Sal, Bea, and beautiful cousin Susan).

For a few great years I pediatric-nursed in NY & NJ, before God took me on "the journey of a lifetime" & by surprise & joy, turned & brought me in 1975 to "my 2nd beautiful homeland", Israel ! (the 1st in the family to do this!) Visits to America while my dad, Tom, and the aunts and uncles were still with us, brought yummy Yorkshire pudding feasts, and sweet & funny stories from their childhood to my "Burns treasury"...Uncle Spog's name, from his small-child-"non-cursing" "spogedy-mogedies!"...Tom's "mercy haircut" to a poor neighbor boy...Spog biting the mine-mule's lip in retribution!...the girls' berry-filling of the boys' baskets, because the boys' had eaten all theirs and feared going home empty-handed...the clanking of the potty under the girls' bed, rigged by "string & spit" from  the tipping of the occupied outhouse!...little Tom

and the gang "zoom-riding" his Christmas scooter, from its hide-away in the upstairs closet, down the hall any time parents were out in the pre-Christmas season!...and oh-so-much-
more!...

Life has been "full & wonderful", with my 1st 2 years on Kibbutz-communes Gat/"Gath"(Biblical Goliath's hometown) and Na'an (from the Hebrew "na'a'neh"/"we will answer!"), and then on to Jerusalem, where God "planted me" for over 20 years, working a long & satisfying career in Hadassah, Mt.Scopus,' Preemie & Newborn ICU. In addition I taught Shabbat-school Bible classes and worked with our Messianic teens, 15-years-each!....and I now have "grandkids" to nurture and love.

Blessing followed blessing, & God brought me to live in Beit Shemesh (where the Biblical Ark of the Covenant "lived" for a while, before Jerusalem & the Temple). I then worked here in the national public health system, teaching & vaccinating & intervening in the schools, & caring for infants & toddlers in our well-baby clinics, called "A Drop of Milk", where I still volunteer....BECAUSE...I'm now retired & thankful to God for every second I worked...& every second I'm a pensioner! There's no retirement, tho, from a busy & full life of enjoyment, service, and sharing God's love!...and when people I meet ask me how many children I have, I say "thousands"!  :)

Blessings on you all, family! I'll be eager to read your "blogs"...  :)